Search results for: global location-domination number

Authors: Mariel L. Alonzo, Patricia Mae T. Chi, Juliana Patrice P. Mayormita, Sanjana A. Sorio

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Compassion fade proposes an inverse relationship between the magnitude of stimuli to elicited compassion. This phenomenon is viewed within a framework that integrates a 3-Act Compassion structure with Latané and Darley’s Unresponsive Bystander Model and Prospect Theory of Decision-making under risk. Students (N=211) from Ateneo de Davao were sampled to examine the effects of mass perception (increasing number of needy persons) and intertemporal choice (soon versus later) on volunteering behavior. Collegiate classes in their natural setting were randomly assigned to five different treatment groups and were presented with audiovisual presentations featuring an increasing number of needy persons. The students were deceived to believe that two hypothetical feeding programs for Marawi refugees, taking place in 1 month and 6 months, were in need of volunteers for its preparatory phase. Results show a statistically significant (p=0.000; p=0.013) non-linear trend consistently for both feeding programs. There was a decrease in volunteered time means as identifiable victims increased from 0-47 and an increase as it progressed towards 267 non-identifiable victims. Highest interest was expressed for the 0 needy people shown and least for 47. The 0 hours volunteered was consistently the mode and median in all treatments. There was no statistically significant temporal discounting effect.

Keywords: compassion, group perception, identifiable victim, intertemporal choice, prosocial behavior, unresponsive bystander

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Authors: Viacheslav Shkuratskyy, Aminu Bello Usman, Michael O’Dea, Saifur Rahman Sabuj

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This paper examines relationships between solar activity and earthquakes; it applied machine learning techniques: K-nearest neighbour, support vector regression, random forest regression, and long short-term memory network. Data from the SILSO World Data Center, the NOAA National Center, the GOES satellite, NASA OMNIWeb, and the United States Geological Survey were used for the experiment. The 23rd and 24th solar cycles, daily sunspot number, solar wind velocity, proton density, and proton temperature were all included in the dataset. The study also examined sunspots, solar wind, and solar flares, which all reflect solar activity and earthquake frequency distribution by magnitude and depth. The findings showed that the long short-term memory network model predicts earthquakes more correctly than the other models applied in the study, and solar activity is more likely to affect earthquakes of lower magnitude and shallow depth than earthquakes of magnitude 5.5 or larger with intermediate depth and deep depth.

Keywords: k-nearest neighbour, support vector regression, random forest regression, long short-term memory network, earthquakes, solar activity, sunspot number, solar wind, solar flares

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Authors: Jonathan Galvan-Colin, Ariel Valladares, Renela Valladares, Alexander Valladares

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Both porous materials and bulk metallic glasses have been studied due to their potential applications and their exceptional physical and chemical properties. However, each material presents certain drawbacks which have been thought to be overcome by generating bulk metallic glass foams (BMGF). Although some experimental reports have been performed on multicomponent BMGF, still no ab initio works have been published, as far as we know. We present an approach based on the expanding lattice (EL) method to generate binary amorphous nanoporous Cu64Zr36. Starting from two different configurations: a 108-atom crystalline cubic supercell (cCu64Zr36) and a 108-atom amorphous supercell (aCu64Zr36), both with an initial density of 8.06 g/cm3, we applied EL method to halve the density and to get 50% of porosity. After the lattice expansion the supercells were subject to ab initio molecular dynamics for 500 steps at constant room temperature. Then, the samples were geometry-optimized and characterized with the pair and radial distribution functions, bond-angle distributions and a coordination number analysis. We found that pores appeared along specific spatial directions different from one to another and that they differed in size and form as well, which we think is related to the initial structure. Due to the lack of experimental counterparts our results should be considered predictive and further studies are needed in order to handle a larger number of atoms and its implication on pore topology.

Keywords: ab initio molecular dynamics, bulk mettalic glass, porous alloy

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Authors: Jasaswini Mishra, Ashim K. Dey

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This paper aims to investigate the group interaction effects of laterally loaded pile groups driven into a medium dense sand layer in submerged state. Static lateral load tests were carried out on pile groups consisting of varying number of piles and at different spacings. The test setup consists of a load cell (500 kg capacity) and an LVDT (50 mm) to measure the load and pile head deflection respectively. The piles were extensively instrumented with strain gauges so as to study the variation of soil resistance within the group. The bending moments at various depths were calculated from strain gauge data and these curves were fitted using a higher order polynomial in order to get 'p-y' curves. A comparative study between a single pile and a pile under a group has also been done for a better understanding of the group effect. It is observed that average load per pile is significantly reduced relative to single pile and it decreases with increase in the number of piles in a pile group. The loss of efficiency of the piles in the group, commonly referred to as "shadowing" effect, has been expressed by the use of a 'p-multiplier'. Leading rows carries greater amount of load when compared with the trailing rows. The variations of bending moment with depth for different rows of pile within a group and different spacing have been analyzed and compared with that of a single pile. p multipliers within different rows in a pile group were evaluated from the experimental study.

Keywords: group action, laterally loaded piles, p-multiplier, strain gauge

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Authors: R. M. Rizk-Allah

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This paper presents co-evolutionary fruit fly optimization algorithm based on firefly algorithm (CFOA-FA) for solving unconstrained optimization problems. The proposed algorithm integrates the merits of fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA), firefly algorithm (FA) and elite strategy to refine the performance of classical FOA. Moreover, co-evolutionary mechanism is performed by applying FA procedures to ensure the diversity of the swarm. Finally, the proposed algorithm CFOA- FA is tested on several benchmark problems from the usual literature and the numerical results have demonstrated the superiority of the proposed algorithm for finding the global optimal solution.

Keywords: firefly algorithm, fruit fly optimization algorithm, unconstrained optimization problems

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Authors: Aneta Nitsch-Osuch, Beata Pawlus, Maria Pawlak

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Introduction: Recently, the number of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children or present so-called hesitant behaviors has increased in many developed countries. The study aimed to analyze the completeness and timeliness of vaccinations against hepatitis B and tuberculosis in neonates in a single maternity hospital in Warsaw (Poland). Material and Methods: We analyzed medical records of children born in the hospital between 1st January 2015 and 31st December 2016 and calculated the proportion of newborns not vaccinated on time. Results: The percentage of unvaccinated newborns was similar in the analyzed years: 7.2% in 2015 and 6.7% in 2016. Parental decisions rather than medical contraindications caused non-immunization (4.3% vs. 2.9% in 2015, and 4.7% vs. 2% in 2016). Most parents refused both vaccinations (81%-84%), whereas 7-8% refused only hep B vaccination, and 9-11% refused alone tuberculosis vaccination. The majority of hesitant parents decided to delay both vaccinations (70-80%), while 10-11% of parents chose to delay only one vaccination (hep B). In consecutive years, an increase in the percentage of parents delaying tuberculosis vaccination was reported (10 vs. 19%). Discussion: The increase in the number of newborns who are not correctly vaccinated just after birth due to their parents' decision should be considered non-gradual, both for hepatitis B and tuberculosis. It is necessary to implement effective educational and informative measures targeted at future parents to reinforce positive attitudes towards vaccinations and to dispel doubts about them among parents who are hesitant.

Keywords: hepatitis B, tuberculosis, immunization, new-borns, coverage rate

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Authors: Simon Komesker, Achim Wagner, Martin Ruskowski

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In times of volatile markets with fluctuating demand and the uncertainty of global supply chains, flexible production systems are the key to an efficient implementation of a desired production program. In this publication, the authors present a holistic information concept taking into account various influencing factors for operating towards the global optimum. Therefore, a strategy for the implementation of multi-level planning for a flexible, reconfigurable production system with an alternative production concept in the automotive industry is developed. The main contribution of this work is a system structure mixing central and decentral planning and control evaluated in a simulation framework. The information system structure in current production systems in the automotive industry is rigidly hierarchically organized in monolithic systems. The production program is created rule-based with the premise of achieving uniform cycle time. This program then provides the information basis for execution in subsystems at the station and process execution level. In today's era of mixed-(car-)model factories, complex conditions and conflicts arise in achieving logistics, quality, and production goals. There is no provision for feedback loops of results from the process execution level (resources) and process supporting (quality and logistics) systems and reconsideration in the planning systems. To enable a robust production flow, the complexity of production system control is artificially reduced by the line structure and results, for example in material-intensive processes (buffers and safety stocks - two container principle also for different variants). The limited degrees of freedom of line production have produced the principle of progress figure control, which results in one-time sequencing, sequential order release, and relatively inflexible capacity control. As a result, modularly structured production systems such as modular production according to known approaches with more degrees of freedom are currently difficult to represent in terms of information technology. The remedy is an information concept that supports cross-system and cross-level information processing for centralized and decentralized decision-making. Through an architecture of hierarchically organized but decoupled subsystems, the paradigm of hybrid control is used, and a holonic manufacturing system is offered, which enables flexible information provisioning and processing support. In this way, the influences from quality, logistics, and production processes can be linked holistically with the advantages of mixed centralized and decentralized planning and control. Modular production systems also require modularly networked information systems with semi-autonomous optimization for a robust production flow. Dynamic prioritization of different key figures between subsystems should lead the production system to an overall optimum. The tasks and goals of quality, logistics, process, resource, and product areas in a cyber-physical production system are designed as an interconnected multi-agent-system. The result is an alternative system structure that executes centralized process planning and decentralized processing. An agent-based manufacturing control is used to enable different flexibility and reconfigurability states and manufacturing strategies in order to find optimal partial solutions of subsystems, that lead to a near global optimum for hybrid planning. This allows a robust near to plan execution with integrated quality control and intralogistics.

Keywords: holonic manufacturing system, modular production system, planning, and control, system structure

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Authors: Xinghui Wu, Chun Yang

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Inertial microfluidics is a competitive fluidic method with applications in separation of particles, cells and bacteria. In contrast to traditional microfluidic devices with low Reynolds number, inertial microfluidics works in the intermediate Re number range which brings about several intriguing inertial effects on particle separation/focusing to meet the throughput requirement in the real-world. Geometric modifications to make channels become irregular shapes can leverage fluid inertia to create complex secondary flow for adjusting the particle equilibrium positions and thus enhance the separation resolution and throughput. Although inertial microfluidics has been extensively studied by experiments, our current understanding of its mechanisms is poor, making it extremely difficult to build rational-design guidelines for the particle focusing locations, especially for irregularly shaped microfluidic channels. Inertial particle microfluidics in irregularly shaped channels were investigated in our group. There are several fundamental issues that require us to address. One of them is about the balance between the inertial lift forces and the secondary drag forces. Also, it is critical to quantitatively describe the dependence of the life forces on particle-particle interactions in irregularly shaped channels, such as a rectangular one. To provide physical insights into the inertial microfluidics in channels of irregular shapes, in this work the immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method (IB-LBM) was introduced and validated to explore the transport characteristics and the underlying mechanisms of an inertial focusing single particle in a rectangular microchannel. The transport dynamics of a finitesized particle were investigated over wide ranges of Reynolds number (20 < Re < 500) and particle size. The results show that the inner equilibrium positions are more difficult to occur in the rectangular channel, which can be explained by the secondary flow caused by the presence of a finite-sized particle. Furthermore, force decoupling analysis was utilized to study the effect of each type of lift force on the inertia migration, and a theoretical model for the lateral lift force of a finite-sized particle in the rectangular channel was established. Such theoretical model can be used to provide theoretical guidance for the design and operation of inertial microfluidics.

Keywords: inertial microfluidics, particle focuse, life force, IB-LBM

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Authors: Sanjaya N. Munasinghe, R. Gnanasekeram, Dimuthu Tennakoon

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During the last few years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of motorcyclists in Sri Lankan roads and thus an increase of motorcycle accidents (MCAs) with a heavy death and casualty toll. Extremity injuries due to MCAs cause a heavy burden on government hospitals. However, data on MCA injuries are limited. This study tries to determine the relationship between extremity injuries with protective gears and clothing motorcycle riders were wearing at the time of the accident. Data were collected from 410 motorcycle riders and passengers involved with MCAs and admitted to orthopedic and emergency observation wards in Teaching Hospital Kurunegala with extremity injuries between 1st February 2015 and 31st July 2015 using an interviewer administered questioner. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. Distal radial fracture is the most common upper extremity injury (12%), and Tibial fracture is the most common and severe lower extremity injury (23%). Very few participants were wearing safety gloves (2%) and jackets (10%). Most of the participants were wearing slippers (66%), short sleeved upper clothing (96%) and light cloth trousers (49%). According to Chi-square test associations were found between footwear and foot injuries (p-value - 0.001, Cramer's v-value - 0.203) and safety jacket and upper extremity injuries (p-value - 0.002, Cramer's v-value - 0.177). The results indicate that using safety gear can minimize the number of injuries in MCA victims. Thus it is necessary to ensure that motorcycle riders and pillion riders use proper safety gear.

Keywords: extremity injuries, fractures, motorcycle accidents, safety gear

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Authors: Emma Van Schie

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The purpose of this study is to use mixed methods research to create typologies of the performance of firms in the cotton-to-clothing value chain in Zimbabwe, and to use these typologies to achieve the objective of adding to the small pool of studies on Sub-Saharan African value chains performing in the context of economic liberalisation and achieving development. The uptake of economic liberalisation measures across Sub-Saharan Africa has led to the restructuring of many value chains. While this action has resulted in some African economies positively reintegrating into global commodity chains, it has also been deeply problematic for the development impacts of the majority of others. Over and above this, these nations have been placed at a disadvantage due to the fact that there is little scholarly and policy research on approaches for managing economic liberalisation and value chain development in the unique African context. As such, the central question facing these less successful cases is how they can integrate into the world economy whilst still fostering their development. This paper draws from quantitative questionnaires and qualitative interviews with 28 stakeholders in the cotton-to-clothing value chain in Zimbabwe. This paper examines the performance of firms in the value chain, and the subsequent local socio-economic development impacts that are affected by the revival of the cotton-to-clothing value chain following its collapse in the wake of Zimbabwe’s uptake of economic liberalisation measures. Firstly, the paper finds the relatively undocumented characteristics and structures of firms in the value chain in the post-economic liberalisation era. As well as this, it finds typologies of the status of firms as either being in operation, closed down, or being placed under judicial management and the common characteristics that these typologies hold. The key findings show how a mixture of macro and local level aspects, such as value chain governance and the management structure of a business, leads to the most successful typology that is able to add value to the chain in the context of economic liberalisation, and thus unlock its socioeconomic development potential. These typologies are used in making industry and policy recommendations on achieving this balance between the macro and the local level, as well as recommendations for further academic research for more typologies and models on the case of cotton value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, this study adds to the small collection of academic evidence and policy recommendations for the challenges that African nations face when trying to incorporate into global commodity chains in attempts to benefit from their associated socioeconomic development opportunities.

Keywords: cotton-to-clothing value chain, economic liberalisation, restructuring value chain, typologies of firms, value chain governance, Zimbabwe

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Authors: G. Tamilpavai, C. Vishnuppriya

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Bioinformatics is an active research area which combines biological matter as well as computer science research. The longest common subsequence (LCSS) is one of the major challenges in various bioinformatics applications. The computation of the LCSS plays a vital role in biomedicine and also it is an essential task in DNA sequence analysis in genetics. It includes wide range of disease diagnosing steps. The objective of this proposed system is to find the longest common subsequence which presents in a normal and various disease affected human DNA sequence using Self Organizing Map (SOM) and LCSS. The human DNA sequence is collected from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. Initially, the human DNA sequence is separated as k-mer using k-mer separation rule. Mean and median values are calculated from each separated k-mer. These calculated values are fed as input to the Self Organizing Map for the purpose of clustering. Then obtained clusters are given to the Longest Common Sub Sequence (LCSS) algorithm for finding common subsequence which presents in every clusters. It returns nx(n-1)/2 subsequence for each cluster where n is number of k-mer in a specific cluster. Experimental outcomes of this proposed system produce the possible number of longest common subsequence of normal and disease affected DNA data. Thus the proposed system will be a good initiative aid for finding disease causing sequence. Finally, performance analysis is carried out for different DNA sequences. The obtained values show that the retrieval of LCSS is done in a shorter time than the existing system.

Keywords: clustering, k-mers, longest common subsequence, SOM

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Authors: Rabih Al-Kaysi

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When quasi-stable solutions of 9-methylanthracene (pi-electron donor, 0.0005 M) and 1,2,4,5-Tetracyanobenzene (pi-electron acceptor, 0.0005 M) in aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS, 0.025 M) were gently mixed, uniform-shaped rectangular charge-transfer nanocrystals precipitated out. These red colored charge-transfer (CT) crystals were composed of a 1:1-mole ratio of acceptor/ donor and are highly insoluble in water/SDS solution. The rectangular crystals morphology is semi hollow with symmetrical twin pockets reminiscent of nanocapsules. For a typical crop of nanocapsules, the dimensions are 21 x 6 x 0.5 microns with an approximate hollow volume of 1.5 x 105 nm3. By varying the concentration of aqueous SDS, mixing duration and incubation temperature, we can control the size and volume of the nanocapsules. The initial number of CT seed nanoparticles, formed by mixing the D and A solutions, determined the number and dimensions of the obtained nanocapsules formed after several hours of incubation under still conditions. Prolonged mixing of the donor and acceptor solutions resulted in plenty of initial seeds hence smaller nanocapsules. Short mixing times yields less seed formation and larger micron-sized capsules. The addition of Doxorubicin in situ with the quasi-stable solutions while mixing leads to the formation of CT nanocapsules with Doxorubicin sealed inside. The Doxorubicin can be liberated from the nanocapsules by cracking them using ultrasonication. This method can be extended to other binary CT complex crystals as well.

Keywords: charge-transfer, nanocapsules, nanocrystals, doxorubicin

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Authors: Cátia Regina Branco da Fonseca, Maria Wany Louzada Strufaldi, Lídia Raquel de Carvalho, Rosana Fiorini Puccini

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Background: Birth weight reflects gestational conditions and development during the fetal period. Low birth weight (LBW) may be associated with antenatal care (ANC) adequacy and quality. The purpose of this study was to analyze ANC adequacy and its relationship with LBW in the Unified Health System in Brazil. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil, 2004 to 2008. Data were collected from secondary sources (the Live Birth Certificate), and primary sources (the official medical records of pregnant women). The study population consisted of two groups, each with 860 newborns. The case group comprised newborns weighing less than 2,500 grams, while the control group comprised live newborns weighing greater than or equal to 2,500 grams. Adequacy of ANC was evaluated according to three measurements: 1. Adequacy of the number of ANC visits adjusted to gestational age; 2. Modified Kessner Index; and 3. Adequacy of ANC laboratory studies and exams summary measure according to parameters defined by the Ministry of Health in the Program for Prenatal and Birth Care Humanization. Results: Analyses revealed that LBW was associated with the number of ANC visits adjusted to gestational age (OR = 1.78, 95% CI 1.32-2.34) and the ANC laboratory studies and exams summary measure (OR = 4.13, 95% CI 1.36-12.51). According to the modified Kessner Index, 64.4% of antenatal visits in the LBW group were adequate, with no differences between groups. Conclusions: Our data corroborate the association between inadequate number of ANC visits, laboratory studies and exams, and increased risk of LBW newborns. No association was found between the modified Kessner Index as a measure of adequacy of ANC and LBW. This finding reveals the low indices of coverage for basic actions already well regulated in the Health System in Brazil. Despite the association found in the study, we cannot conclude that LBW would be prevented only by an adequate ANC, as LBW is associated with factors of complex and multifactorial etiology. The results could be used to plan monitoring measures and evaluate programs of health care assistance during pregnancy, at delivery and to newborns, focusing on reduced LBW rates.

Keywords: low birth weight, antenatal care, prenatal care, adequacy of health care, health evaluation, public health system

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Authors: Sumitta Sawangtook, Parichart Thano

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The purposes of research were to study the relationship between the awareness of sexual risk behaviors and sexual risk behaviors of adolescent students, and to compare the sexual risk behaviors of adolescent students by gender, education level, sweetheart’s number, achievement, sexual value, and the influence of the friendship group. The research sample of 344 sevenths through twelfth grade students in secondary school for the academic year 2014, Dindang district Bangkok was selected by simple random sampling. The research instruments are: 1) demographic questionnaire 2) evaluation form of the awareness of sexual risk behaviors 3) questionnaire about sexual value 4) questionnaire about the influence of the friendship group and 5) evaluation form of sexual risk behaviors. They were used for data collections which are subsequently analyzed by percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, One-way Analysis of Variances. The results of this study were presented as follow: 1) The awareness of sexual risk behaviors was negatively correlated with sexual risk behaviors of adolescent students (r=-.27, p=.000). 2) There was significant difference at .05 level in sexual risk behaviors among adolescent students who had gender difference (t=5.90, p=.000). 3) There was no significant difference at .05 level in sexual risk behaviors among adolescent students who had the different level of education (t=1.41, p=.16). 4) There was significant difference at .05 level in sexual risk behaviors among adolescent students who had the different level of sweetheart’s number (F=13.03, p=.000). 5) There was significant difference at .05 level in sexual risk behaviors among adolescent students who had the different level of achievement (F=4.77, p=.009). 6) There were significant difference at .05 level in sexual risk behaviors among adolescent students who had different level of sexual value (F=50.91, p=.000) 7) There were significant difference at .05 level in sexual risk behaviors among adolescent students who had different level of the influence of the friendship group (F=98.41, p=.000).

Keywords: the awareness of sexual risk behaviors, sexual risk behaviors, adolescent students

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Authors: Mohammad Sharifi Bohlouli

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Turkish language with many dialects is native or official language of great number of people all around the world. The Qashqaie dialect of Turkish language is spoken by the Qashqaie tribe mostly scattered in the southern part of Iran. This paper aims at analyzing the tense system of this dialect to detect the type and number of tense and aspects available to its speakers. To collect a reliable data, a group of 50 old native speakers were randomly chosen as the informants and different techniques such as; Shuy et al interviews, selective listening ,and eavesdropping were used. The results of data analysis showed that the tense system in the Qashqaie dialect of Turkish language includes 3 absolute tenses , 6 aspectual , and 2 subjunctive ones. The interesting part of the study is that Qashqaie dialect enables its speakers to make a kind of aspectual opposition through verb structure which seems to be almost impossible through verb forms in any other nonturkish languages. For example in the following examples sentences 1 &2 and 3&4 have the same translation In English although they are different in both meaning and structure. 1. Ali ensha yazirdi. 2. Ali ensha yazirmush. (Ali was writing a composition.) 3. Ali yadmishdi. 4. Ali yadmishimish. ( Ali had slept.) The changes in the verb structure in Qashqaie dialect enables its speakers to say that whether the doer of the action remembers the process of doing the action or not. So, it presents a new aspectual opposition as Observed /nonobserved. The research findings reveal many other regularities and linguistic features that can be useful for linguists interested in Turkish in general and for those interested in tense and aspect and also they can be helpful for different pedagogical purposes including teaching and translating.

Keywords: qashqaie dialect, tense, aspect, linguistics, Turkish Language

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Authors: Selin Top, Raul Marcos, M. Sinan Bilgili

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Although there have been several studies related to collection, temporary storage, handling and disposal of solid wastes generated by hospitals, there are only a few studies related to liquid wastes generated by hospitals or hospital wastewaters. There is an important amount of water consumptions in hospitals. While minimum domestic water consumption per person is 100 L/day, water consumption per bed in hospitals is generally ranged between 400-1200 L. This high amount of consumption causes high amount of wastewater. The quantity of wastewater produced in a hospital depends on different factors: bed numbers, hospital age, accessibility to water, general services present inside the structure (kitchen, laundry, laboratory, diagnosis, radiology, and air conditioning), number and type of wards and units, institution management policies and awareness in managing the structure in safeguarding the environment, climate and cultural and geographic factors. In our country, characterization of hospital wastewaters conducted by classical parameters in a very few studies. However, as mentioned above, this type of wastewaters may contain different compounds than domestic wastewaters. Hospital Wastewater (HWW) is wastewater generated from all activities of the hospital, medical and non medical. Nowadays, hospitals are considered as one of the biggest sources of wastewater along with urban sources, agricultural effluents and industrial sources. As a health-care waste, hospital wastewater has the same quality as municipal wastewater, but may also potentially contain various hazardous components due to using disinfectants, pharmaceuticals, radionuclides and solvents making not suitable the connection of hospital wastewater to the municipal sewage network. These characteristics may represent a serious health hazard and children, adults and animals all have the potential to come into contact with this water. Therefore, the treatment of hospital wastewater is an important current interest point to focus on. This paper aims to approach on the investigation of hospital wastewater treatment by membrane systems. This study aim is to determined hospital wastewater’s characterization and also evaluates the efficiency of hospital wastewater treatment by high pressure filtration systems such as ultrafiltration (UF). Hospital wastewater samples were taken directly from sewage system from Şişli Etfal Training and Research Hospital, located in the district of Şişli, in the European part of Istanbul. The hospital is a 784 bed tertiary care center with a daily outpatient department of 3850 patients. Ultrafiltration membrane is used as an experimental treatment and the influence of the pressure exerted on the membranes was examined, ranging from 1 to 3 bar. The permeate flux across the membrane was observed to define the flooding membrane points. The global COD and BOD5 removal efficiencies were 54% and 75% respectively for ultrafiltration, all the SST removal efficiencies were above 90% and a successful removal of the pathological bacteria measured was achieved.

Keywords: hospital wastewater, membrane, ultrafiltration, treatment

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Authors: Elizabeth Ankiambom Chiatii

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The effective participation of graduates as leaders in entrepreneurial resilience is a key driver to achieving sustainable job creation and curbing unemployment issues in the urban and rural communities of Cameroon. The unemployment problem is a global challenge in the Labour market, especially for youths graduating from universities. Statistics from the Cameroon National Institute of statistics indicate that the unemployment rate in the country increased to 3.9% in 2021 from 3.8% in 2020. One of the main causes of unemployment challenges and job hooping among university graduates is the high expectation for “white-collar jobs syndrome” as opposed to involvement in ‘blue-collar jobs’. In the recent years, the Catholic University of Cameroon has engaged its resources in problem and project based learning (PBL) approaches in order to enable the students at the end of their course work to be competent and resourceful in impacting their communities and the world at large. It is so encouraging to notice that most of our current and female ex-students have engaged as leaders in fostering entrepreneurial resilience through small and medium size ‘blue-collar’ enterprises like seamstresses or tailors, designers, catering services, poultry owners, traditional regalia designers, phone booth operators, farming (gardening) activities, saloon owners, wedding designers, restaurant operators and many other creative jobs where they also act as petty employers. A good number of them sponsor their university studies through these self-income generating activities. Part one of this paper centres on the introduction and background of study. Part two embodies some literature review in which we concentrate on some related conceptual issues. For example, we have some analogy of employment difficulties faced by the university graduates. Secondly, we will examine the details on entrepreneurial resilience within the context of Bamenda- Cameroon. Thirdly, we expound on the leadership role played by these graduates in building resilience as entrepreneurs stemming from their university training. The primary method of data collection is implemented, where questionnaires are distributed to at least 100 of these graduates engaged in building entrepreneurial resilience. The IVProbit regression analysis is used to determine the effect of these graduate participation as leader on entrepreneurial resilience. The results can contribute to the development of entrepreneurial resilience, and recommendations will be made to CATUC Bamenda, some communities and government leaders to enhance their policies to empower these young graduates in fostering these resourceful activities.

Keywords: graduates entrepreneurial resilience, unemployment challenges, white-collar job syndrome, small and medium size blue-collar enterprises

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Authors: Muritala Babatunde Hassan

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In the contemporary global political economy, foreign direct investment (FDI) is gaining currency on daily basis. Notably, the end of the Cold War has brought about the dominance of neoliberal ideology with its mantra of private-sector-led economy. As such, nation-states now see FDI attraction as an important element in their approach to national development. Governments and policy makers are preoccupying themselves with unraveling the best strategies to not only attract more FDI but also to attain the desired socio-economic development status. In Nigeria, the perceived development potentials of FDI have brought about aggressive hunt for foreign investors, most especially since transition to civilian rule in May 1999. Series of liberal and market oriented strategies are being adopted not only to attract foreign investors but largely to stimulate private sector participation in the economy. It is on this premise that this study interrogates the politics of FDI attraction for domestic development in Nigeria between 1999 and 2014, with the ultimate aim of examining the nexus between regime type and the ability of a state to attract and benefit from FDI. Building its analysis within the framework of institutional utilitarianism, the study posits that the essential FDI strategies for achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of Nigerians are political not economic. Both content analysis and descriptive survey methodology were employed in carrying out the study. Content analysis involves desk review of literatures that culminated in the development of the study’s conceptual and theoretical framework of analysis. The study finds no significant relationship between transition to democracy and FDI inflows in Nigeria, as most of the attracted investments during the period of the study were market and resource seeking as was the case during the military regime, thereby contributing minimally to the socio-economic development of the country. It is also found that the country placed much emphasis on liberalization and incentives for FDI attraction at the neglect of improving the domestic investment environment. Consequently, poor state of infrastructure, weak institutional capability and insecurity were identified as the major factors seriously hindering the success of Nigeria in exploiting FDI for domestic development. Given the reality of the currency of FDI as a vector of economic globalization and that Nigeria is trailing the line of private-sector-led approach to development, it is recommended that emphasis should be placed on those measures aimed at improving the infrastructural facilities, building solid institutional framework, enhancing skill and technological transfer and coordinating FDI promotion activities by different agencies and at different levels of government.

Keywords: foreign capital, politics, socio-economic development, FDI attraction strategies

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Authors: Masahiro Miyaji

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When a driver happens to be involved in some traffic congestion or after traffic incidents, the driver may fall in a state of anger. State of anger may encounter decisive risk resulting in severer traffic accidents. Preventive safety function using driver’s psychosomatic state with regard to anger may be one of solutions which would avoid that kind of risks. Identifying driver’s anger state is important to create countermeasures to prevent the risk of traffic accidents. As a first step, this research figured out root cause of traffic incidents by means of using Internet survey. From statistical analysis of the survey, dominant psychosomatic states immediately before traffic incidents were haste, distraction, drowsiness and anger. Then, we replicated anger state of a driver while driving, and then, replicated it by means of using driving simulator on bench test basis. Six types of facial expressions including anger were introduced as alternative characteristics. Kohonen neural network was adopted to classify anger state. Then, we created a methodology to detect anger state of a driver in high accuracy. We presented a driving support safety function. The function adapts driver’s anger state in cooperation with an autonomous driving unit to reduce the number of traffic accidents. Consequently, e evaluated reduction rate of driver’s anger in the traffic accident. To validate the estimation results, we referred the reduction rate of Advanced Safety Vehicle (ASV) as well as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

Keywords: Kohonen neural network, driver’s anger state, reduction of traffic accidents, driver’s state adaptive driving support safety

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: Mst. Tuhina-Khatun, Mohamed Hanafi Musa, Mohd Rafii Yosup, Wong Mui Yun, Md. Aktar-Uz-Zaman, Mahbod Sahebi

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Rice is a staple crop of economic importance of most Asian people, and blast is the major constraints for its higher yield. Heritability of plants traits helps plant breeders to make an appropriate selection and to assess the magnitude of genetic improvement through hybridization. Diversity of crop plants is necessary to manage the continuing genetic erosion and address the issues of genetic conservation for successfully meet the future food requirements. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to estimate heritability and to determine the diversity of 27 blast resistant upland rice genotypes based on 18 quantitative traits using randomized complete block design. Heritability value was found to vary from 38 to 93%. The lowest heritability belonged to the character total number of tillers/plant (38%). In contrast, number of filled grains/panicle, and yield/plant (g) was recorded for their highest heritability value viz. 93 and 91% correspondingly. Cluster analysis based on 18 traits grouped 27 rice genotypes into six clusters. Cluster I was the biggest, which comprised 17 genotypes, accounted for about 62.96% of total population. The multivariate analysis suggested that the genotype ‘Chokoto 14’ could be hybridized with ‘IR 5533-55-1-11’ and ‘IR 5533-PP 854-1’ for broadening the gene pool of blast resistant upland rice germplasms for yield and other favorable characters.

Keywords: blast resistant, diversity analysis, heritability, upland rice

Procedia PDF Downloads 369

Authors: Theresia Dwi Hastuti, Kristiana Haryanti, Agustine Eva Maria Soekesi

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Today's family business continues to grow in big cities and in rural areas throughout Indonesia in line with the development of the business world and global competition. This study aims to analyze the effect of company value, leadership, and ownership succession on the financial performance of the family business. The research method was carried out quantitatively with multiple regression. The respondent amounted to 63 entrepreneurs. This study found that company value, leadership succession, relationships, and communication affect the financial performance of the family business.

Keywords: company value, family business, financial performance, leadership succession, ownership succession

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Elisa Esposito, Johannes C. Jansen, Loredana Dellamuzia, Ugo Moretti, Lidietta Giorno

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The reduction of CO₂ emission into the atmosphere as a result of human activity is one of the most important environmental challenges to face in the next decennia. Emission of CO₂, related to the use of fossil fuels, is believed to be one of the main causes of global warming and climate change. In this scenario, the production of biomethane from organic waste, as a renewable energy source, is one of the most promising strategies to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission. Unfortunately, biogas upgrading still produces the greenhouse gas CO₂ as a waste product. Therefore, this work presents a case study on biogas upgrading, aimed at the simultaneous purification of methane and CO₂ via different steps, including CO₂/methane separation by polymeric membranes. The original objective of the project was the biogas upgrading to distribution grid quality methane, but the innovative aspect of this case study is the further purification of the captured CO₂, transforming it from a useless by-product to a pure gas with food-grade quality, suitable for commercial application in the food and beverage industry. The study was performed on a pilot plant constructed by Tecno Project Industriale Srl (TPI) Italy. This is a model of one of the largest biogas production and purification plants. The full-scale anaerobic digestion plant (Montello Spa, North Italy), has a digestive capacity of 400.000 ton of biomass/year and can treat 6.250 m3/hour of biogas from FORSU (organic fraction of solid urban waste). The entire upgrading process consists of a number of purifications steps: 1. Dehydration of the raw biogas by condensation. 2. Removal of trace impurities such as H₂S via absorption. 3.Separation of CO₂ and methane via a membrane separation process. 4. Removal of trace impurities from CO₂. The gas separation with polymeric membranes guarantees complete simultaneous removal of microorganisms. The chemical purity of the different process streams was analysed by a certified laboratory and was compared with the guidelines of the European Industrial Gases Association and the International Society of Beverage Technologists (EIGA/ISBT) for CO₂ used in the food industry. The microbiological purity was compared with the limit values defined in the European Collaborative Action. With a purity of 96-99 vol%, the purified methane respects the legal requirements for the household network. At the same time, the CO₂ reaches a purity of > 98.1% before, and 99.9% after the final distillation process. According to the EIGA/ISBT guidelines, the CO₂ proves to be chemically and microbiologically sufficiently pure to be suitable for food-grade applications.

Keywords: biogas, CO₂ separation, CO2 utilization, CO₂ food grade

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Authors: Vishwa Nath Maurya, Rama Shanker Sharma, Saad Talib Hasson Aljebori, Avadhesh Kumar Maurya, Diwinder Kaur Arora

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Present paper deals with problems of determining the relationship between the variables of corporate governance and financial performance of Islamic banks. Here, we dealt with the corporate governance in the banking sector, where increasing the importance of corporate governance, due to their special nature, as the bankruptcy of banks affects not only the relevant parties from customers, depositors and lenders, but also affect financial stability and then the economy as a whole. Through this paper we dealt to the specificity of governance in Islamic banks, which face double governance: Anglo-Saxon governance system and Islamic governance system. In addition, we focused our attention to measure the impact of corporate governance variables on financial performance through an empirical study on a sample of Islamic banks during the period 2005-2012 in the GCC region. Our present study implies that there is a very strong relationship between the variables of governance and financial performance of Islamic banks, where there is a positive relationship between return on assets and the composition of the Board of Directors, the size of the Board of Directors, the number of committees in the Council, as well as the number of members of the Sharia Supervisory Board, while it is clear that there is a negative relationship between return on assets and concentration ownership.

Keywords: correlation analysis, parametric estimation, corporate governance, financial performance, financial stability, conventional banks, bankruptcy, Islamic governance system

Procedia PDF Downloads 516

Authors: P. Byrnes, F. A. DiazDelaO

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The Support Vector Machine (SVM) has become widely recognised as one of the leading algorithms in machine learning for both regression and binary classification. It expresses predictions in terms of a linear combination of kernel functions, referred to as support vectors. Despite its popularity amongst practitioners, SVM has some limitations, with the most significant being the generation of point prediction as opposed to predictive distributions. Stemming from this issue, a probabilistic model namely, Probabilistic Classification Vector Machines (PCVM), has been proposed which respects the original functional form of SVM whilst also providing a predictive distribution. As physical system designs become more complex, an increasing number of classification tasks involving industrial applications consist of more than two classes. Consequently, this research proposes a framework which allows for the extension of PCVM to a multi class setting. Additionally, the original PCVM framework relies on the use of type II maximum likelihood to provide estimates for both the kernel hyperparameters and model evidence. In a high dimensional multi class setting, however, this approach has been shown to be ineffective due to bad scaling as the number of classes increases. Accordingly, we propose the application of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) based methods to provide a posterior distribution over both parameters and hyperparameters. The proposed framework will be validated against current multi class classifiers through synthetic and real life implementations.

Keywords: probabilistic classification vector machines, multi class classification, MCMC, support vector machines

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Authors: H. E. Keshta, A. A. Ali

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Three phase grid-tied inverters are widely employed in micro-grids (MGs) as interphase between DC and AC systems. These inverters are usually controlled through standard decoupled d–q vector control strategy based on proportional integral (PI) controllers. Recently, advanced meta-heuristic optimization techniques have been used instead of deterministic methods to obtain optimum PI controller parameters. This paper provides a comparative study between the performance of the global Porcellio Scaber algorithm (GPSA) based PI controller and Manta Ray foraging optimization (MRFO) based PI controller.

Keywords: micro-grids, optimization techniques, grid-tied inverter control, PI controller

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Shiva Mardani, Mehdi Nasr-Esfahani, Majid Olia, Hamid Molahosseini, Hamed Hassanzadeh Khankahdani

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Plant-parasitic nematodes cause serious diseases on plants and effectively reduce food production in quality and quantity worldwide, with at least 17 nematode species in the three important and major genera, including Meloidogyne, Heterodera, and Pratylenchus. Root-knot nematodes (RKN), Meloidogyne spp. with the dominant species, Meloidogynejavanica, are considered as the important plant pathogens of agricultural products globally. The hosts range can be vegetables, bedding plants, grasses, shrubs, numerous weeds, and trees, including forests. In this study, chemical management was carried out on RKN, M. javanica, to investigate the efficacy of Iranian Abamectin insecticide product [acaricide Abamectin (Vermectin® 2% EC, Gyah Corp., Iran)] verses imported normal Abamectin available in the Iran markets [acaricide Abamectin (Vermectin® 1.8% EC, Cropstar Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.)] each of which at the rate of 8 L./ha, on Tomatoes, Solanumlycopersicum L., (No. 29-41, Dutch company Siemens) as a test plant, and the controls (infested to RKN and without any chemical pesticides treatments); and (sterile soil without any RKN and chemical pesticides treatments) at the greenhouse in Isfahan, Iran. The trails were repeated thrice. The results indicated a highly significant reduction in RKN population and an increase in biomass parameters at 1% level of significance, respectively. Relatively similar results were obtained in all the three experiments conducted on tomato root-knot nematodes. The treatments of Gyah-Abamectin (51.6%) and external Abamectin (40.4%) had the highest to least effect on reducing the number of larvae in the soil compared to the infected controls, respectively. Gyah-Abamectin by 44.1% and then external one by 31.9% had the highest effect on reducing the number of larvae and eggs in the root and 31.4% and 24.1% reduction in the number of galls compared to the infected controls, respectively. Based on priority, Gyah-Abamectin (47.4 % ) and external Abamectin (31.1 %) treatments had the highest effect on reducing the number of egg- masses in the root compared to the infected controls, with no significant difference between Gyah-Abamectin and external Abamectin. The highest reproduction of larvae and egg in the root was observed in the infected controls (75.5%) and the lowest in the healthy controls (0.0%). The highest reduction in the larval and egg reproduction in the roots compared to the infected controls was observed in Gyah-Abamectin and the lowest in the external one. Based on preference, Gyah-Abamectin (37.6%) and external Abamectin (26.9%) had the highest effect on the reduction of the larvae and egg reproduction in the root compared to the infected controls, respectively. Regarding growth parameters factors, the lowest stem length was observed in external Abamectin (51.9 cm), with nosignificantly different from Gyah-Abamectin and healthy controls. The highest root fresh weight was recorded in the infected controls (19.81 gr.) and the lowest in the healthy ones (9.81 gr.); the highest root length in the healthy controls (22.4 cm), and the lowest in the infected controls and external Abamectin (12.6 and 11.9 cm), respectively. Conclusively, the results of these three tests on tomato plants revealed that Gyah-Abamectin 2% compared to external Abamectin 1.8% is competitive in the chemical management of the root nematodes of these types of products and is a suitable alternative in this regard.

Keywords: solanum lycopersicum, vermectin, biomass, tomato

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Authors: Sara Lamari, Toufik Madani

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This study aimed to explore the relationship between reproduction performances and coat characteristics of Montbéliarde cows born in Algeria or imported from Europe during the hot season in Algeria. Hair coat traits (hair coat color, Hair Weight, hair length, the number of hair per unit area, total hair diameters and hair medulla diameters) were estimated in 18 imported cattle and 49 locally born cows. These traits were measured in an area of 20cm below the dorsal line in the center of the thorax. Results showed that hair coats were significantly different between locally born and imported cows. Imported cows had whiter coats when compared to locally born cows for Montbéliarde cows. A significant effect of total hair diameter was observed on the interval from calving to conception (IC) for imported Montbéliarde cows, suggesting less incidence of heat stress on reproduction efficiency of cows with thin diameter hair coats. Montbéliarde cows with short hair coat registered significantly more number of mating per conception (2, 28±1, 93 Vs. 1,67±0,92) and IC (98,04±78,81Vs 74.53 ± 35.60 days) when compared to cows with long hairs. Hair works as a temperature regulator in association with muscles in the skin and may affect reproduction performances during hit stress season. It can be assumed that the length and a total diameter of hairs for the Montbeliarde breed appears to be related to their reproductive efficiency.

Keywords: hair coat, reproduction, Montbeliarde cow, hot season

Procedia PDF Downloads 165

Authors: Alicja Starczewska, Aleksander Nawrat, Krzysztof Daniec, Jarosław Homa, Kacper Hołda

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Border Gateway Protocol is the main routing protocol that enables routing establishment between all autonomous systems, which are the basic administrative units of the internet. Due to the poor protection of BGP, it is important to use additional BGP security systems. Many solutions to this problem have been proposed over the years, but none of them have been implemented on a global scale. This article describes a system capable of building images of real-time BGP network topology in order to detect BGP anomalies. Our proposal performs a detailed analysis of BGP messages that come into local network cards supplemented by information collected by remote collectors in different localizations.

Keywords: BGP, BGP hijacking, cybersecurity, detection

Procedia PDF Downloads 78

Authors: Gianmaria Califano, Júlio Augusto Lucena Maciel, Olfa Zarrouk, Miguel Damasio, Jose Silvestre, Ana Margarida Fortes

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Global warming, with rapid and sudden changes in meteorological conditions, is one of the major constraints to ensuring agricultural and crop resilience in the Mediterranean regions. Several strategies are being adopted to reduce the pressure of drought stress on grapevines at regional and local scales: improvements in the irrigation systems, adoption of interline cover crops, and adaptation of pruning techniques. However, still, more can be achieved if also microbial compartments associated with plants are considered in crop management. It is known that the microbial community change according to several factors such as latitude, plant variety, age, rootstock, soil composition and agricultural management system. Considering the increasing pressure of the biotic and abiotic stresses, it is of utmost necessity to also evaluate the effects of drought on the microbiome associated with the grapevine, which is a commercially important crop worldwide. In this study, we characterize the diversity and the structure of the microbial community under three long-term irrigation levels (100% ETc, 50% ETc and rain-fed) in a drought-tolerant grapevine cultivar present worldwide, Syrah. To avoid the limitations of culture-dependent methods, amplicon sequencing with target primers for bacteria and fungi was applied to the same soil samples. The use of the DNeasy PowerSoil (Qiagen) extraction kit required further optimization with the use of lytic enzymes and heating steps to improve DNA yield and quality systematically across biological treatments. Target regions (16S rRNA and ITS genes) of our samples are being sequenced with Illumina technology. With bioinformatic pipelines, it will be possible to obtain a characterization of the bacterial and fungal diversity, structure and composition. Further, the microbial communities will be assessed for their functional activity, which remains an important metric considering the strong inter-kingdom interactions existing between plants and their associated microbiome. The results of this study will lay the basis for biotechnological applications: in combination with the establishment of a bacterial library, it will be possible to explore the possibility of testing synthetic microbial communities to support plant resistance to water scarcity.

Keywords: microbiome, metabarcoding, soil, vinegrape, syrah, global warming, crop sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Chen Guo, Heng Tang, Ben Niu

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Clustering splits objects into different groups based on similarity, making the objects have higher similarity in the same group and lower similarity in different groups. Thus, clustering can be treated as an optimization problem to maximize the intra-cluster similarity or inter-cluster dissimilarity. In real-world applications, the datasets often have some complex characteristics: sparse, overlap, high dimensionality, etc. When facing these datasets, simultaneously optimizing two or more objectives can obtain better clustering results than optimizing one objective. However, except for the objectives weighting methods, traditional clustering approaches have difficulty in solving multi-objective data clustering problems. Due to this, evolutionary multi-objective optimization algorithms are investigated by researchers to optimize multiple clustering objectives. In this paper, the Data Clustering algorithm based on Multi-objective Periodic Bacterial Foraging Optimization with two Learning Archives (DC-MPBFOLA) is proposed. Specifically, first, to reduce the high computing complexity of the original BFO, periodic BFO is employed as the basic algorithmic framework. Then transfer the periodic BFO into a multi-objective type. Second, two learning strategies are proposed based on the two learning archives to guide the bacterial swarm to move in a better direction. On the one hand, the global best is selected from the global learning archive according to the convergence index and diversity index. On the other hand, the personal best is selected from the personal learning archive according to the sum of weighted objectives. According to the aforementioned learning strategies, a chemotaxis operation is designed. Third, an elite learning strategy is designed to provide fresh power to the objects in two learning archives. When the objects in these two archives do not change for two consecutive times, randomly initializing one dimension of objects can prevent the proposed algorithm from falling into local optima. Fourth, to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm, DC-MPBFOLA is compared with four state-of-art evolutionary multi-objective optimization algorithms and one classical clustering algorithm on evaluation indexes of datasets. To further verify the effectiveness and feasibility of designed strategies in DC-MPBFOLA, variants of DC-MPBFOLA are also proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that DC-MPBFOLA outperforms its competitors regarding all evaluation indexes and clustering partitions. These results also indicate that the designed strategies positively influence the performance improvement of the original BFO.

Keywords: data clustering, multi-objective optimization, bacterial foraging optimization, learning archives

Procedia PDF Downloads 139